Fast Track. Runners.

If Prince Charles gives up the throne to marry Camilla...

July 18, 1993|By Cheryl Lavin.

If Prince Charles gives up the throne to marry Camilla Parker Bowles, inquiring minds will want to know why. It's not for her looks, according to James Whitaker, author of "Diana vs. Charles: Royal Blood Feud" (Dutton), but for some other factors. "She's frankly not the most pristine of women-you're not sure whether they're today's knickers she's got on. Her house is a bit of a mess, I don't think she goes to the hairdresser, and most of the time she can't be bothered to dress up. Compared to the almost glacial (Diana), Camilla is earthy and unbothered. Though virtually the same age as Charles, she can offer a mother's refuge to a man with a troubled childhood who is easily downcast. Between Charles and Camilla, there was, and is, a meeting of minds-but it is something more fundamental than that; she is both mother and mistress, adviser and advised."

Neil Simon, one of the most creative people in American theater, has not yet figured out the creative process. In "Lost in Yonkers: The Illustrated Screenplay of the Film" (Newmarket Press), he says: "The creative process amazes me right up to the moment I see a piece with an audience. I always feel that there is some other brain, maybe a subconscious brain, that does the work. I'm only dealing with the conscious brain, who thinks, `Yes, I'm writing this; you have a character come and do this.' But the other brain back there is saying, `No, no, no, put something like this in, and you'll use it later.' It's called the muse. You always feel you're a middleman, the typist or the secretary. . . ."